Chapter Two
SUFFERING ROLLS IN
"Did someone in the crowd say cool?"
Out of everyone that could have heard the words that came out of Dionysus' mouth, it was an old man that was wearing some sort of robes. He was hunched over and using a stick to stay standing.
"Someone said cool? You must be getting senile, pops. Nobody could ever think that something this cruel is 'cool'."
A young woman standing besides the old man took the old man by his free hand and began to walk away with him.
Just like that, a majority of the crowd dispersed into the many alleys and roads that the city had. The only person left was Dionysus, who was still staring at the body in awe.
'To do whatever you want . . . I want to live like that!'
Dionysus, for some reason, just couldn't get over the words of the man who had just been hung. After spending some time contemplating what to do, he jumped up on stage where there were still the guards and the young lady.
They quickly took notice of Dionysus.
"What are you doing!?"
"Put your hands up!"
Except for the young lady, they all moved to apprehend Dionysus, who was still staring at the body of the man who gave what was, in his mind, an exhilarating speech. More specifically, he was staring at the rope that was hanging it.
"We said put your hands up!"
At this point, the guards were starting to pull out swords and spears. However, Dionysus continued to stare at the rope with interest.
"How do you get the body off that little rope?"
Dionysus sounded like an innocent child to everyone on stage right now. He pointed at the rope with one hand, while the other scratched his head. He also asked the question while looking at the young lady that had declared why the man was being hung.
"Y-You would dare to disrespect the royal family? Apprehend him, guards!"
After saying this, the guards finally began to take Dionysus seriously and circled him. They all pointed their weapons at him, and Dionysus was finally beginning to take them somewhat seriously as well.
"Why are insects like you . . . rebelling?"
He asked it in a very curious tone, as if he truly did not know why he was surrounded. This only served to anger the guards even more, but they still remembered their positions and didn't dare to kill the man.
We just have to apprehend him . . .'
The captain of the current group of guards was thinking.
Finally, he came to a conclusion.
"Take his legs out and then tie him up!"
The guards were so well trained at following orders that the ones with spears immediately began to shove their spear through the air with the intent of piercing Dionysus' knee.
". . . Fuckwads."
WHOOSH
Right after saying that, the heads of the people who tried to pierce him went flying off the body. Before the other guards could even fully understand what was going on, Dionysus had taken ahold of the young lady and was already making a mad dash to get as far away from here as possible.
"Capture him!"
The captain of the guard didn't falter, even in this crisis, and continued to issue his orders. The other guards hopped off the stage and began to dash after Dionysus, who was cutting through the city using alleyways, roads, whatever.
After running for a bit, he had lost all of them. He was currently holding the lady over his shoulder and standing on top of a building. It was far away from the scene of the crime, so he wasn't too worried about being found at this point.
He dropped the lady on the roof of the building that they were on, and then kneeled down to look at her in the face. It was as if he was a curious chimpanzee.
"So . . . how do I get that body off the rope?"
"You criminal scum, the guards will capture you and deal with you adequately."
The lady sat up and stared at the clouds. Dionysus followed her line of view until he understood that she was staring at clouds, and then looked back at her with more confusion on his face.
"I know I'm brand new to the world, but I don't think this is the reaction that a person would show while being held hostage."
The lady giggled a little bit before continuing to stare at the clouds for a bit more. After a while, she stood up and began stretching.
"Being the honorable daughter of a noble, do you think that I haven't been a hostage before? Thankfully, no matter what the situation is, I'm usually never actually threatened because a majority of the criminals that do capture me just demand money from my family, which they'd have to keep me alive for."
She said all this in a very monotonous voice, leading Dionysus to further believe her words.
"Huh, I guess you wouldn't react normally after all of that."
Dionysus sat down and crossed his legs. He wasn't worried about her running away, as he could easily capture her and drag her back.
"Still, you're a bit different. Why do you want the body of that asshole?"
She stopped stretching and paid a little more attention to Dionysus. After investigating him more, she was starting to find even his features a little old.
"Well, the man gave a great speech before he died. Live how you want is what he was saying, or at least that's what I interpreted."
"You know that he was only trying to use that as an excuse for his crime, right?"
The young lady finally realized that she was dealing with an absolute buffoon. She sighed and shook her head before lying down and continuing to stare at the clouds.
Dionysus stood up, and this time it seemed he planned on leaving.
"Even if it was an attempt at excusing himself from the crime, the message behind it still rings true. I think I'm going to follow his way of life and see how that turns out."
After saying that, he looked at the young lady with dedicated eyes. For the first time in a long while, she actually felt pressure from someone besides the higher-ups in the empire. Sweat began to droop down onto the ground.
"How do I get that man off that little rope?"
". . . You're goddamn scum, you know? Haah . . ."
Exasperated at how big of a brick wall that she was confronting mentally, she told him that he had to just cut it. After getting the information that he wanted, he was about ready to hop back to the scene of the execution.
"Wait."
After saying that, the young lady pulled a card from somewhere, though Dionysus didn't know where. Just from looking at her dress and combining the view with common knowledge, anyone would come to the conclusion that the dress clearly didn't have pockets.
Dionysus stared at the card, which simply had a bloodied knife symbol on it.
"If you ever see that symbol on anything, whether it be the ground, a wall, or even the sky, just push on it."
After saying that, the lady stood up and climbed down on the roof, all while Dionysus watched her. Afterwards, she proceeded to just begin to stroll down the road. Dionysus just shrugged and began running back to the execution platform.
'I got everything I wanted out of pinkie, no other reason to keep her hostage.'
He had just let the pink haired girl go, as he saw no reason to keep her hostage any longer. Still, the issue concerning the mystery of the card was still present.
But, for some reason, he had a feeling that it would all just work out in the end.
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"Tighten up the security of this area."
The captain of the guard was currently standing on the wooden platform where the execution took place. He, in his full knight armor, was still instructing other guards left and right as to what to do.
As of right now, they had lost sight of Dionysus and were attempting to capture him. While he did send out some guards to scour the city, he also made sure to position some here just in case the culprit returned to the scene where it all began.
"Remember lads, the culprit actually ends up coming back to the scene of the crime a lot of times."
Even during this time of crisis, he was still finding ways to teach the other guards as to how to be successful with their jobs.
"Yo, can you clear a path for me?"
"Captain, the culp-"
SQUISH
With a single kick, Dionysus had sent the head of the guard flying off his body. Unfortunately for a poor fellow, he happened to catch the head accidentally and was half scared to death.
"Surround him!"
The captain pointed his finger at Dionysus, who was currently standing in the middle of the wooden platform. A circle was quickly formed around him, and many weapons were pointed at him.
"Where is lady Estavire?"
While saying this, the captain pulled the greatsword out of its sheath hanging on his back. Dionysus spared a look of amazement for the size of the sword before acknowledging the situation that he was in.
"I already let her go, she's probably home by now. Listen, I just want the body of that man on the rope. Once I have it, I promise I'll leave."
At this point, almost every single guard present was beginning to label Dionysus as a mad-man within the dwelling that would be considered their mind.
"The body is not yours, and neither is the decision as to what to do with it! Surrender peacefully and you'll most likely be let off lightly for your crime against a noble!"
The guard had no intention of yielding.
However, it was already too late. Dionysus could see the rotten essence of all the men here floating above their heads. They were all in the form of a dark mist, and some dark mists were larger than others.
The only actual surprising thing was what was above the captain's head, for there was a mist so large that nearly the whole stage was encased by it.
"What, is this Estavire your woman or something?"
"Don't overstep your bounds, scum."
It seemed as if Dionysus had stimulated a nerve for the captain, which caused the dark mist that he was releasing to swell into an even larger side.
"Fine, dumbass."
Dionysus felt his strength surge by merely being in the presence of all these dark mists. All these mists represented the negative emotions of the human wielding them, and the more there was, the stronger that Dionysus was.
'I guess I stimulated them enough.'
Dionysus didn't know why he knew all of this, but it just felt as natural as sleeping was to know all of this information.
"HOLD HIM DOWN!"
The captain was finally beginning the process of apprehending Dionysus, but it was already too late.
"Yo, let me introduce you to what I call Human Regret."
RING
A loud ringing that was easily able to damage the human ear drum rang out from the center of the commotion, while Dionysus continued to thrive in the middle of it all.
A mad cackle emerged from his lips, and by using his ability, Human Regret, he easily put down all of the guards.
Well, nearly all of them. The captain still stood proudly, as if all of this was nothing.
SWISH
The captain's greatsword swung down with enough strength that, even with Dionysus blocking it, the execution platform they were standing on easily collapsed below them. Even if the grounds were only made out of wood, it was an impressive feat.
"I'd suggest that you go fuck yourself. At the very least, that might be worth your time, instead of trying to bring me down."
Dionysus simply mocked the captain while getting up. All the people in the surrounding area were beginning to flee in fear of the scene that was going on.
Meanwhile, the captain stood up from the rubble that was the platform and the two proceeded to stare at each other.
Or, at least that's what Dionysus thought until there was a humongous sword swinging down at him without his noticing.